Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for cooling and/or heating media, preferably in a motor vehicle, and to a sorptive heat and cold storage system.
Description of the Background Art
Internal combustion engines with their high level of development represent an ideal power-heat-coupled drive of a vehicle. In the winter, a notable portion of the waste heat from the internal combustion engine is used for heating an interior of the motor vehicle. Nevertheless, the inappropriate time distribution of the available waste heat and the heat requirement for heating components, such as the internal combustion engine itself and the vehicle cabin, are problematic. At the start of driving, the cold engine works at a low efficiency due to increased friction and incomplete fuel combustion. Driving safety simultaneously requires rapid defrosting of iced-up or fogged windows and the vehicle occupants desire as rapid a heating of the interior as possible. At the start of driving, therefore, especially in winter there is a high heat requirement, which cannot be covered so rapidly by the internal combustion engine. During and at the end of a drive, in contrast, the internal combustion engine is so warm that excess heat, primarily in the summer, must be removed to the outside to prevent overheating.
Various systems based on thermally isolated water and latent heat storage systems are known for storing engine heat for later more rapid engine preheating and/or windshield de-icing. There are systems, which in most cases are based on phase-change materials, for short-term cold storage as well. Efficient indirect charge air cooling systems are also prior in the art, which utilize the thermal capacity of a coolant circuit in order to briefly transfer high cooling capacities to the charge air of the internal combustion engine. Because the coolant is cooled by the ambient air, however, this temperature or values below it cannot be reached. Measures to prevent critically high combustion temperatures, which can lead to engine-damaging knocking, are engine-related measures that are associated with rather high efficiency losses and an increase in emissions, however.
EP 1 342 893 B1 discloses a device with which charge air is cooled by addition of an evaporator to the compression cooling device for vehicle air conditioning as needed by further cooling of a cooling circuit below the ambient temperature.
DE 10 2006 048 485 A1, which corresponds to US 20080087402, which is incorporated herein by reference, proposes an evaporator, which is disposed directly at the intake system of an internal combustion engine and transfers the cold produced by evaporation directly and with low inertia to the intake air near the engine.
DE 199 27 879 C2 describes a concept for an adsorption cooling system for air conditioning vehicles with two adsorbers that are used as thermal compressors to condense operating media in a central condenser and after expansion to evaporate it in an evaporator with the uptake of heat for cooling the vehicle cabin. Such an adsorption cooling system could also be used basically for cooling the charge air of an internal combustion engine. It is disadvantageous that the concept cannot be used for storing cold in order, e.g., to briefly cool in addition charge air of a highly charged internal combustion engine during an on-demand full-load operation so greatly that the knock limit is not reached.
In other conventional art, however, it is disadvantageous that a cooling capacity is transferred via a coolant to the charge air, as a result of which additional cooling capacity can be transferred only with high inertia to the charge air. In addition, the cooling capacity is obtained by additional operating power of a coolant compressor and thereby reduces the efficiency. Also, the demand for cold proceeds at the expense of the driving power of a cooling compressor and thereby takes mechanical power away from the internal combustion engine.